


The Sakura Dilemma

by peonydee



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon Compliant, Courtship, Crude jokes, F/M, Post-Chapter 699 (Naruto), Prosthetics, Slice of Life, an attempt at, background NaruHina - Freeform, i guess it's a, personal medic fic, someone had tagged this as, to the main series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-28
Updated: 2021-03-28
Packaged: 2021-03-28 06:41:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30135552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peonydee/pseuds/peonydee
Summary: Sasuke had been traveling for three years, when Konohagokure no sato extended him a helping hand. He took it, but the arrangement forced him to spend more time in the village and with a certain mednin.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke
Kudos: 1





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

  * For [politeia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/politeia/gifts).



> This was first posted via Tumblr on March 2015.
> 
> coronagraminea’s writing prompt:  
> The Sakura Dilemma: Adjusting to the Idea of Having a Future again  
> — uchiha sasuke, a dissertation 
> 
> Started before the gaidens were published. Particularly in the later chapters, I took a lot of liberty. In the end, this is self-indulgence for a ship so loved for so long.

**I.**

Trust was a curious thing, Sasuke decided, for trust must have been at play, must have allowed him to enter a territory he shouldn’t have been allowed to breach, what with the baggage he carried. Official pardons were easy to discard when ones good sense was overridden by defensive gut reaction. _They_ must trust their Hokage that much. That trust must have extended to Naruto and Sakura.

After weeks of ruminating on the pros and cons, he decided to heed their advice on accepting the limb prosthetic and had gone home to undergo the procedure. Sakura and Naruto in their enthusiasm made it sounds so simple, but their old sensei, carrying the more practical worries of his station had been kind in explaining certain realities. They had arranged to meet today to discuss finances and logistics.

* * *

Evidently, becoming Hokage had not fixed Hatake Kakashi's casual approach to time. Sasuke might have taken a quick nap at his desk--he did trust them too, he supposed--before Naruto's approach roused him.

"Hey," the other man peered at him from the doorway, not even bothering to hide his triumphant grin. "You're home. You have a meeting with sensei?"

"You look... good," Sasuke said. "All things considered."

That wiped off Naruto’s stupid smile at least. With a sigh, he flopped down on the chair opposite Sasuke's. "If I have to hear 'it's a family custom' one more time, I think I’ll reverse-summon us to Mt. Myobuku and have one of the toads marry us."

"And cast a shade upon your children's parentage."

The dobe waved away that detail. "It makes Hinata-chan happy to see everyone get along, so I guess it's okay."

"How do you even know you're ready for marriage?" It was an impertinent question, but one Sasuke was genuinely curious about.

Naruto's whiskered face crinkled as he gave the question a surprising depth of thought. Sasuke expected a breezy, "I just know it!" as if answers to such life-changing questions simply sprouted out of thin air for his friend. Naruto had always been more determined to be happy, he conceded.

"I can be a little slow sometimes," the dobe finally admitted.

"You think?"

"After I discovered I wanted to share my everyday with her for the rest of my life, it wasn't really a hard jump to getting used to the idea of getting married. I mean it sounds terrifying if you focus on the forever part and that we’re starting something new I don't--I don't even have experience in--"

"I don't think first timers really have any experience going into things like this." Even Sasuke knew that.

"But you do, don't you? I mean things went to shit, but you grew up with a family. I mean you saw your parents interact. You remember."

Ever the optimist, Sasuke thought, but he let it lie.

"Anyway, it's easier to just think of forever as everyday instead. And that she'll help, and she won't laugh, not meanly anyway, and that we'll probably both mess up a lot, especially in the beginning.

"It's really the practical things that's tricky, like, how much do I need to save each payday for the wedding? Which apartment can we each afford to pay by ourselves, just in case one of us can't work? Grown up stuff like that.

"Did that make sense?"

"No," Sasuke said. Naruto opened his mouth to explain further but was foiled by their Hokage's arrival.

"Forgive my tardiness," the Rokudaime said, his eye twinkling underneath the vestments of his office. "I was washed away by a sea of nostalgia and it was a long swim coming back ashore."

His old students rolled their eyes in unison, muscle memory overriding polite fictions for their ultimate commander.

"He'll never run out of those," Naruto lamented.

"Unfortunately," Sasuke agreed.

After greeting his Hokage, Naruto rose to leave. "I can always come back later," he said. "It'll be harder for him to reschedule with you. Come by later if you're staying in town for a while. I have an actual spare room now and--don't tell Sakura-chan--my quality porn stash that I will gladly pass on to you. Practice that new hand of yours."

The jounin backed out of the room with winks and vague hand gestures. Kakashi blushed delicately as Naruto finally succumbed to his own joke. Sasuke felt the imminence of a tension headache.

"I suppose your balance will be odd for a bit, but I think you’ll get used to it fairly quickly," Kakashi said. "Not necessarily in the solo flight capacity-- though won't that be like doing it with Hashirama's hand on your junk--"

"You said something about technicalities."

"Yes. Yes, I did. Direct transplantation of Hashirama cells is highly dangerous and we've seen first hand their more grotesque effects. Even the growth of limbs in vitro, as our research mednins have done, aren't without risks, so on behalf of Konoha village, we appreciate your trust."

"Aa."

"I do have a tight operational budget and there's only so many places from which I can pull out funding for unplanned expenses."

"And the elders won't approve your using it on me without something in return. Predictable. You want me to formally accept missions again."

"Only one actually, a simple thing. It's a good deal, and I can even give you a decent stipend."

"Cut to the chase, Kakashi."

"Educational endowment. You just need to produce an official output, something like a dissertation."

"I've never written a dissertation."

"Neither have I; I’ll be lenient. I do have suggested topics from various people for a start."

The Hokage pushed a ratty piece of paper towards him.

  1. Far-Reaching Socioeconomic Effects of the Recent Shinobi War
  2. Reanimation vs. Resuscitation: When Should the Dead Stay Dead?
  3. The Post-War Resocialization of Missing Ninjas--Arguments For and Against Their Return to Their Native Hidden Villages
  4. The Effects of Mineral Content on Broth, An International Survey
  5. A Survey on the Sociopolitical Relevance of the Icha Icha novel series
  6. The Spring After A Long Winter Dilemma: Adjusting to the Idea of Having A Future Again, A Soul-Searching Reflection



"You can always propose other topics, but it'll have to go through the elders and the endowment committee and the ninja academy. A pain in the tush, really, so if you'd so kind pick one of the pre-approved topics--"

"Are you joking with me?"

"I am not. You've learned a lot in your various travels. You've had three years to think. Three years is short in a lifetime, I agree, but you've done enough thinking to further explore your discoveries following a certain direction, frame your thought processes into something structured."

Kakashi smiled at him kindly. Sasuke could feel the telltale throb of his temples and neck now. He was going to pass a bad night.

"I think it will help," the Hokage finished.

"This was her idea, wasn't it?"

"She gave me the idea offhand, yes. She also suggested embroidery, crochet, knitting, needlepoint, basket weaving, glass etching, pottery, wood carving..."

"I get it, I get it."

"Two of your senpai have volunteered to serve as your advisor. You can request someone else, if you're heartless enough to rake me through more red tape."

"Again, predictable. I choose her. I can at least follow her line of thinking."

Kakashi seemed very pleased with his decision; Sasuke discovered why after the procedure. Haruno Sakura had been appointed as Sasuke's attending mednin and shall oversee the follow-up care post-prosthetic attachment.

* * *

_**A Note on Funding Source / Declaration of Conflicting Interests** _

_The author is being paid a living allowance by Konohagakure no Sato. Mednins caring for the author have also waived professional fees otherwise owed; in lieu of payment, the author is participating in undisclosed clinical trials unrelated to this study. The author continues to have a professional relationship with the pharmaceutical, herbology, and chemistry departments; the monies earned in these retrieval missions are received by Konoha General Hospital and the Medical Staff to cover expenditures related to the author’s treatment._

_The author does accept donation, but would prefer for donors to direct their kindness to Konoha’s post-war rehabilitation funds instead, with special attention on the orphanage, the half-way homes, and the new pediatric walk-in clinic._


	2. II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> originally posted via Tumbler on April 2015

For all of Kakashi's formality with signed contracts and legally-obtained funds, Sasuke expected gleaming walls of instruments and steel cells filled with experimental subjects. The whole ordeal started professionally enough. Sasuke turned up in front of Konoha General Hospital for his follow up appointment at nine o'clock, Tuesday, two days after the arm was attached.

Sakura, white coat over her usual mednin uniform, led him through the lobby, an elevator ride to the basement, and a maze-like collection of halls and doors labeled laboratory, hematology, chemistry, pathology, and so on. Those parts looked like legitimate hospital departments, but then the surroundings started looking too familiar for comfort.

"We reclaimed some of this area after the war," she explained ten minutes into their journey. "R&D isn't exactly priority and even though half the equipment need some fixing, the infrastructure stands. The waste containment, air circulation vent system, chakra dampening cells... Orochimaru was obsessive and detail-oriented."

"Aa."

"We're a legit operation."

"I didn't say otherwise."

She wisely didn't choose to add any more arguments, but he could see her brows knit, as if she were internally generating twenty-five more of them.

"And if it wasn't, my silence can be bought."

"Please tell me Naruto hasn't been feeding you ramen three times a day. You need quality protein in your diet, among other things. Less sodium will certainly help keep your kidneys from choking, between the drugs and dead muscle cells--"

"I've been feeding him, if you have to know. Tell your Hokage I'm expensing said feeding."

"You should have stayed with me instead," she muttered. "My dad can cook."

"I've been told you had no spare room."

Sasuke wasn't sure what was going on in her mind, but that seemed to silence her. She took pains in looking very occupied with finding their way--from the branching passageways she had to constantly choose from, that wasn't surprising. Still, he caught her stealing glances at him when she didn't have to stare into some dim alley, seeming to take pleasure at the action. He couldn't read anything on the actual look, but he felt no tension or aggression or anxiety from her. A small smile played about her mouth the entire time, quirking ever so slightly bigger each time she stole said glances.

* * *

The tunnels were unfinished rock in some places, concrete in others, lit by dim, low-energy lamps every few feet. When they reached a noticeably cooler area, she stopped, fumbled through her pockets, and pulled out keys.

The iron door opened to a small room, undressed but for a metallic table, four chairs, a squat sink with tap, and two rows of lockers, mostly padlocked. There was another door beyond this.

"We're in the breakroom of the limb regeneration lab," she said. "I took the long way around so we didn't have to suit up before passing through the working areas."

Suit up? Either for safety of the workers or to prevent contamination, Sasuke supposed. Their products couldn't be that dangerous, considering he was wearing one and would be carting it with him around the world.

"Hashirama cells in certain states could be dangerous, of course." She held both hands up after a pause. "Not your arm! I mean it's pretty stable and confined at the point we attach on a person."

"I signed the consents," he reminded her. "I read fifty-three pages of it summarizing the risks."

"Anyway, we're better off not passing there." She tugged at her ragged ponytail and shifted. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "Please make yourself comfortable, Sasuke-kun. I mean, sit down. The chairs aren't really comfortable. Let me sanitize the area, drape you, scrub up, and then get started."

Sasuke did as he was told and watched as she wiped down the table with some strong-smelling chemical, puttered around the room, scrounged through a few lockers, before poking her head out the other door to call out to her blonde colleague. He could hear the other's complaints cease as she came to the door, some translucent outer garment half-divested and hanging from around her waist. The look she gave her friend seemed significant. They were inseparable growing up, he remembered, so he supposed they were exchanging something private, something he had no business being curious about.

"Ino," Sakura said with an airy laugh. "Was kind enough to offer help."

"Aa."

"But I reminded her she was in the middle of something time-sensitive."

He wasn't one for small talk, but he couldn't stand her fidgeting as they waited for the table to dry. She seemed comfortable talking about her work, so he directed his inquiry along those lines, asking if she was in charge of his care overall.

"We're working as a team, really," she said. "But you can say I'm in charge of seeing your progress over the next year, though other specialists will be seeing you over time. It's a little bit of a role change for me."

"I heard Naruto mention you still take field missions."

"Of course. I am a mednin at heart. We should be able to start soon. There's any number of potential applications for these cells--I can't even tell you. I really wanted to be part of the early steps here in the labs, so I'd be more effective later when we're actually doing trials out there in the field. Granted, front-line applications would be developed in much later phases and not guaranteed funding. Our focus has been the post-war rehabilitation of both ninjas and civilians."

She spoke as she prepared, pointing to a gown for him to change into--just the shirt please.

"We don't need a sterile room," she explained. "Basic asepsis will do. "

Words as brisk as her movement, she further detailed the procedure she was about to perform. She described the chakra field she was overlaying over both of them, which would stunt the growth of the their skin and the creatures naturally growing upon it. The layer around his arm itself would plunge the limb quickly in temperature, in effect suspending all movements within the arm--blood flow, clotting, the exchange of substances between blood and flesh, between cell and cell.

A closed system. The energy she was pulling outward from the thin blanket of air around the Hashirama limb was being recycled to sustain the greater chakra field. Once the system stabilized, she began slicing through the stump of his upper arm and then of the Hashirama limb with chakra scalpels, taking tiny samples from each layer, from different parts of the arm-- the outer skin, the layer of fat between skin and muscle, the sinew, the bone, the fat within the longbone.

He watched as his flesh simply slid back together in place as her chakra scalpels flipped each layer back in place, blurring in their speed, until finally she reattached the artificial arm back.

"Grossly, I can more or less tell everything is proceeding beautifully," she told him absently as she capped a bed of tiny vials, about seventy of them, still maintaining the outer layer of the chakra system she had imposed over them. "There doesn't seem to be any malignant growth, but our researchers will have to look through all the samples we took to look for signs of undifferentiated Hashirama cells arising from the prosthetic or from your arm."

"That was... impressive," he managed. "To say the least."

"Isn't it? It's a beautiful, dangerous thing, this Hashirama limb. Can you imagine fixing things we didn’t think we could regrow? Nerves, brain tissue, pancreatic tissue..."

A correction formed at the tip of his tongue, even as the impressive chakra field dissipated from about them. Then the moment passed and it would have been too odd to explain to her what he meant. Sakura had always had exemplary control over chakra and an immense ability to concentrate and focus when needed. He remembered, too, how pleased she seemed back when they were children, when he made simple, obvious observations about her abilities. How could she not notice, he scoffed then, he still wondered now.

He had seen her in the battlefield, where she had demonstrated how that immense control and focus could level a mountain. Such destruction might be overwhelming to many, but what Sasuke appreciated more was the subtlety of creating and maintaining; everything was bent towards falling apart, anyway---what was a little push? But to fight against a gradient, a predilection, a certainty.... Impressive was a woefully inadequate term.

When he left the village almost two years ago to sort his thoughts, to sort himself, she had asked to go with him and he had told her maybe some other time. That wasn't surprising in the least. She was stubborn and pushy and quite wily. He wondered now, seeing how stretched she was among several, discrete responsibilities, if would she have really been able to leave Konoha and follow him then. She loved him, she had said several times before, but what did that mean in the face of all this? Would there ever be a time when this village would no longer need her talents?

(The more pertinent question for him was different but related: what exactly was he promising to her back then, anyway? And by corollary, what did he want from her?)

"You're all set, Sasuke-kun," she said, breaking through his catalogue of life-changing questions. "Let's see each other in two weeks, same time and place."

"Aa. Thank you."

"You're always welcome. By the way--"

"Yes?"

"I'm glad you enjoyed my little light show."

Sasuke stared at the mednin for a second or so, finding his mind excruciatingly slow in processing what she just said, counting hours in the face of her amusement.

She smiled at him, her face coloring in self-consciousness but unrepentant. "I hope you don't mind my saying it, but I noticed you being impressed by my technique."

He couldn't help but smile back at her, rather gratified that she appreciated her own talents.

People change indeed.

* * *

_**Introduction** _

_Haruno Sakura has had many roles in my life over the years: a classmate, a teammate, an enemy, an assassin, a medic, an attending physician, a liaison, a mere memory, a passing annoyance, a permanent itch._

_I've roamed the world twice over now, have thought many thoughts and come to numerous realizations. Atonement shall take my entire lifetime, though I have resolved to not allow it to consume me as vengeance once had or my life will end up just as hollow as it had been those dark days. Where Haruno Sakura fits in this life of mine, I know not yet, but I am certain of two things: that she will insist on staying and that I do not mind in the least. This paper will explore the adjustments in thoughts and behavior this rehabilitating missing nin had to undergo to rebuild a personal, non-working relationship with a fellow Leaf nin._


End file.
